Hearing Acuity, Cognitive Aging, and Memory for Speech

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管许多成年人在进入老年后仍保持良好的听力，但大量老年人表现出与年龄相关的听力下降，这严重干扰了对语言的理解和记忆。对于老年人的生活质量来说，没有什么比回忆听到的信息的能力更重要的了，无论是医疗保健提供者的指示，关于如何填写表格的口头指示，还是家人和朋友的最新消息。自然语言是快速的，从每分钟90个单词的深思熟虑的谈话，到超过每分钟200个单词的速度。除了如此高的输入率之外，还有一个事实是，说话时经常伴随着背景干扰。众所周知，这两个因素对老年人的破坏性尤其大。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although many adults maintain good hearing into older adulthood, large numbers of older adults manifest age-related hearing declines that significantly interfere with comprehension and memory for speech. Few issues are as important to the quality of life of older adults as the ability to recall heard information, whether it is instructions from medical care providers, verbal instructions on how to complete forms, or the latest news of family and friends. Natural speech is rapid, ranging from 90 words per minute (wpm) for thoughtful conversation, to rates far in excess of 200 wpm. Added to this high input rate is the fact that speech is very often accompanied by background distraction. Both factors are known to be especially disruptive to older adults. This application centers on an interdisciplinary approach combining expertise from cognitive psychology and audiology to the understanding of how age-related cognitive factors interact with agerelated hearing loss (presbycusis) in memory for speech. In order to separate the effects of cognitive aging and hearing acuity, four groups of adults will be tested: older adults with age-related hearing loss, older adults with good hearing in the speech range, young adults with hearing loss in the speech range similar to that of the older adults, and a young adult group with good hearing. The research will focus on (1) the effects of rapid speech and auditory distraction on memory for spoken messages, (2) how the features of the spoken messages interact with age and hearing loss, and (3) the extent to which the use of context can be flexibly employed by older adults with poor hearing as distinct from reflecting an enduring perceptual "style" that may not always be appropriate. On the theoretical level one of the goals will be to test the hypothesis that the extra effort expended on lower level perception of speech can draw resources that would ordinarily be available for "down-stream" processes such as memory encoding for later recall. On the applied level, the data obtained will be valuable for developing guidelines for tests of hearing that are sensitive to the special needs of older adults.